If you're planning a conference, association meeting, or corporate event and considering childcare, the first question is almost always: what does it actually cost?
It's a reasonable question that doesn't have a clean universal answer — because event childcare pricing depends on several variables. But most event planners are working with limited information, and vague answers aren't useful when you're building a budget.
Here's what we know from operating professional event childcare across dozens of events.
The short answer: typical price ranges
Call Emmy's event childcare pricing has two components: a white-glove base fee and sitter costs.
- Sitter costs: $38+/hour per sitter, based on the number of caregivers required and local market rates
- Basic white-glove package: $2,000+ — sitter coordination, assigned leads, check-in/out
- Plus white-glove package: $4,000+ — everything in Basic plus enrollment management, activities, supplies, setup and cleanup
- Premium white-glove package: $7,500+ — everything in Plus plus space transformation, napping arrangements, and mother's lounge setup
All prices are for the Denver metro area. Events outside Denver add $1,250; outside Colorado add $2,500. Sitter costs can be passed to parents, subsidized, or fully covered by the event organizer.
What's included in a professional event childcare engagement
Before comparing providers, understand what a fully managed service covers — because not everything sold as "event childcare" is the same.
Call Emmy's white-glove packages include a curated sitter group, assigned leads, sitter communication, and check-in/out at every level. Higher tiers add enrollment management, liability forms, children's activities and supplies, diapering supplies, discount codes, setup and cleanup, space transformation, napping arrangements, and a dedicated mother's lounge. If a quote doesn't include liability documentation, look elsewhere.
What drives your total cost
Number of children
More children require more sitters. Call Emmy staffs to these ratios: 1:1 for infants 12 months and under, 2:1 for 13–36 months, 3:1 for 37 months to 8 years, 4:1 for children 8 and older, and 1:1 for special needs. A minimum of two sitters is required per event; partial sitters are rounded up.
Age ranges
Infant care is the most labor-intensive and most expensive per child. Events expecting a mix of infants, toddlers, and school-age children typically require more caregivers than events serving a single age group. When you request a quote, provide your best estimate of age distribution.
Duration
Longer events mean more caregiver hours. Events exceeding 6–8 hours also typically require scheduled breaks for caregivers, which means either longer shifts with built-in breaks or shift overlaps — both of which add cost.
Location
Events in major metropolitan markets are generally easier to staff and lower-cost. Events in destination locations (mountain resorts, remote conference centers, out-of-market venues) may include travel and accommodation costs for caregivers.
Lead time
Events booked with less than two weeks' notice often incur a rush fee. Background check expediting, caregiver scheduling, and logistics compression all add cost at short notice. The earlier you book, the better your pricing.
A note on comparing bids
If you're evaluating multiple event childcare providers, make sure you're comparing equivalent services. Specifically:
- Does the quote include liability insurance? Can they provide a COI?
- Are all caregivers background-checked at the time of this event — not just at hiring?
- Who manages day-of operations? Is there a lead caregiver or site supervisor?
- What happens if a caregiver cancels or doesn't show?
The cheapest bid is rarely the best value when children are involved. What you're paying for is operational reliability and verifiable safety — not just warm bodies in a room.
How to budget childcare into your event
For most associations and conference organizers, event childcare costs fall into the general event budget — the same line as catering, AV, and registration. It's rarely a separate revenue item.
Some organizations charge a small registration fee for childcare (typically $25–$75 per child per day) to offset cost and gather attendance estimates. Others absorb the full cost as a member benefit or sponsor it through a family-focused corporate sponsor.
Either approach works. What matters most is that you budget for it early and communicate availability to registrants before registration closes — because parent attendance decisions often happen at the registration stage, not after.
The ROI math
Consider a mid-size professional conference where registration costs $350 per attendee. If adding childcare converts 8 parent attendees who would otherwise have skipped, that's $2,800 in additional registration revenue. Call Emmy's Basic package starts at $2,000 plus sitter costs — if sitter costs run $800 for the event, your total is $2,800 and you've broken even on day one, before counting any retention, sponsorship, or word-of-mouth value.
That math is before accounting for the longer-term retention, word-of-mouth, and reputation effects of being known as an event that makes participation possible for everyone.
Want to see what event childcare would cost for your specific event? Request a quote from Call Emmy — proposals are free and typically delivered within 24 hours.